


Calendula

by LadyMarmalade



Category: Tales of Xillia 2
Genre: Implied Sexual Content, Incest, M/M, kresnikcest
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-24
Updated: 2015-02-24
Packaged: 2018-03-14 21:44:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,664
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3426641
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyMarmalade/pseuds/LadyMarmalade
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"You're... not Rollo." The boy looked up at him with curious green eyes and shook his head. He hugged his knees up to his chest and remained silent as Julius, still dumbstruck by the random boy hidden away in a cupboard, stared back quietly.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Calendula

Julius rubbed his temples with a lengthy yawn as he left the study. Two thick binders of accounting information were tucked securely under his arms as he retreated into the moonlit hallways of the Bakur mansion. He silently wondered how much time had passed while he studied that even the servants had gone to rest for the night. He was ready for a night's rest himself until his stomach growled like a hungry beast.

Julius frowned down at his stomach. He had forgotten to eat once again and he doubted there would be a meal waiting for him in the kitchen, either. He would have to depend on his own culinary skills, he thought as he made way for the kitchen.  
He flicked the lights on and just barely caught a glimpse of a head of white hair dashing into a cupboard.

"Rollo?" he called as quietly as possible. The only moving thing he knew of with white hair that scurried around the kitchen was their cat, after all. With a frown, he placed the binders on the countertop and jerked the cupboard doors open.

"You're... not Rollo."

The boy looked up at him with curious green eyes and shook his head. He hugged his knees up to his chest and remained silent as Julius, still dumbstruck by the random boy hidden away in a cupboard, stared back quietly. Realizing the poor boy was likely scared, he spoke.

"You can come out, you know."

The boy shifted around so that his hands wouldn't be the first to touch the floor. He glanced around the kitchen and with a soft "ah!" ran to the stove. He turned the dial on the stove until it clicked. It wasn't until then that Julius realized that a pot of something that smelled absolutely delicious had been cooking away.

"Were you cooking?"

The boy nodded shyly. He pushed a stool to the stove and climbed it. He peered into the pot with a satisfied smile. Curious, Julius leaned over his shoulder. A pot of tomato and basil pasta. He could feel himself beginning to drool and his stomach threatening to growl once more.

The boy turned to him, refusing to meet his eye, and spoke softly. "It's for you."

Before he could respond, his stomach spoke for him. He wouldn't look a gift cook, no matter how young, in the mouth. "Thank you."

He proceded to grab a plate that had been set out earlier and served a helping of pasta and vegetables onto it. His small hands had difficultly holding the plate with one hand, but he proudly handed it to Julius. It took a single bite for him to realize that it was better than anything he had ever managed in his fifteen years alive.

"Would you mind telling me how old you are?"

"Seven."

"And you can cook?"

"I watch my mom do it all the time," he replied simply.

"Is your mother one of the kitchen girls here? I've never seen you around."

The boy pressed his lips together. He looked around, worried that they could be seen. "We got here today. Mom said Master Bakur said we couldn't talk to each other."

He furrowed his brows together. His father could be mysterious when he wanted to be, but even that request was odd. Then again, he thought, he had always forbid him from speaking to the servants. "But don't you get bored being here all day? There aren't many kids here."

More specifically, there were none at all. Before the boy had come, he was positive he was the youngest person in the entire household. He was always busy studying something or another, when it wasn't school work, it was accounting and management and any other skills Bisley said were necessary for heading a company, so boredom was never an option. But a seven-year old boy? In the middle of summer vacation? He couldn't help but feel a little bad for the kid.

"If I read the books mom gave me, the day passes."

"I owe you for this, would you like to play together tomorrow?"

His eyes lit up and he nodded excitedly. Julius couldn't fight off the smile on his own lips. He continued eating his meal in silence as the boy watched. It wasn't until he placed his dishes in the sink that he realized he never got the other boy's name.

"Ludger."

He ruffled the younger boy's hair. "I'll see you tomorrow then, Ludger."

* * *

They practically grew up together, Julius thought. The almost paralyzing worry he felt when the servant woman- Claudia, he recalled- had asked if he had seen Ludger, that he hadn't come home from school yet, was normal. He rapidly excused himself and bolted out of the front door the moment the woman turned.

He ignored the steadily increasing drizzle and continued down the street. Ludger wasn't the type to run away from home or to worry his mother for no good reason. Could he be in trouble? He did his best to clear his mind of unncessary worries. Panicking would get him nowhere. His best bet would be the cafe by the train station.

It wasn't until he arrived by the station that the rain had picked up its pace. The light shower had grown just short of a storm. He scanned the area quickly, taking time to breath a sigh of relief when he spotted a familiar head of white hair on the steps of the station.

"I knew I'd find you here." He took a seat beside Ludger when he didn't respond. "Hey, is something wrong?"

He buried his head further into his arms. "She said no."

"What?"

Ludger looked up, his eyes red from having cried beforehand, he assumed. "She said no."

Julius couldn't help the tug of pain he felt in his heart. Something about him looking so dejected was wrong. He reached over and hugged him. It was awkward with the angle they were at, on the stairs of the train station, but Ludger returned the embrace.

Getting back home now was the least of his worries.

* * *

It was natural that this had happened, he reasoned with himself. That Ludger had ended up underneath him on his bed in the middle of the night, both of them desperate for contact that went beyond the "just friends" boundary.  
He was eighteen now and Ludger had made the first move. He was inexperienced and clumsy where Julius was experienced and ready to guide.

Ludger's breath came in short, shaky, gasps. His face felt warm and Julius's quickening pace only made it simultaneously better and worse. He grasped at the bedsheets, silent and breathless moans building until they threatened to spill out. In desperation, he bit down on his own balled up fist.

He came with slight shudder, a small and needy moaning escaping his lips and dissolving away into one of relief. It was enough to drive Julius over the edge, with one final thrust he let out a deep and raspy moan. He pulled out and lied down beside Ludger.

"I love you."

His words were just above a whisper. He smiled and leaned over to kiss his cheek. "I love you, too. Get some rest."

* * *

Julius shut his eyes as his father paced back and forth in a quiet rage. It was bad enough that one of the maids had found them enjoying their time together, but for it to reach his father? He couldn't imagine a worse scenario.

"You've made a bigger mistake than you realize."

He frowned and snapped his eyes open. "If this is about producing an heir-"

"If it were that simple, do you think we would be having this discussion?"

Julius felt what little patience he had left wear away. "Then what the hell is this about?"

"He's your brother."

* * *

"Your lunch."

Julius glanced up from his paperwork, careful not to stare at him. Ludger set a plate on his desk. Tomato and basil pasta. He set his papers aside and for a split second his hand brushed up against Ludger's.

He jolted his hand away with a look in his eyes that could only be described as horror. He didn't bother looking up when Ludger excused himself. He had been the one who convinced his father to let him stay- at least until he was finished with school or found work elsewhere. With his mother gone now from illness and his apparent deadbeat of a father, too prideful to allow their relations to be made public, especially what had transpired between both his sons, there were very few options left for the poor boy.

He didn't understand. What he had felt was real enough. He wondered, had Ludger felt the same?

That night, he wasn't surprised to find another servant brought him his dinner.

* * *

He was a reasonable man. Julius knew that there could be no justification for what he felt. It seemed all common sense in the world was lost when Ludger kissed him again, desperately trying to convey longing he couldn't express in words.

"I don't care if we're... related." he whispered, purposely avoiding using the word brother. Somehow actually saying it out loud made it worse. Julius didn't know how to react. He pulled him in closely and held him tightly.

"I thought you hated me."

It felt so utterly wrong how happy it made him. Julius knew better than to try and convince himself that it isn't. He wanted this but would gladly give anything in the world to feel otherwise. But if even the right decision felt wrong, did it really matter?  
Ludger held him even tighter. He missed the familiar scent of cologne and the slightest hint of after shave. They were comforting, in their own way. They were Julius. He shook his head, muttered, "You? No. I love you."

The way he looked up at him with such honest eyes only made him feel all the more guilty.

**Author's Note:**

> I finally wrote this after so long! I got the idea from someone's post on Tumblr (http://onizenmaru.tumblr.com/post/100337388663/au-where-julius-comes-from-an-extremely-well-off). I don't think I did it justice but it still came out better than I thought it would.


End file.
